Envision Solar set for partnership with Al Habtoor | utilities-me.com

Envision Solar set for partnership with Al Habtoor | utilities-me.com

Excerpt:

Aconfort president and CEO Aquilino Ornia, speaking on the deal, said, “It is a tremendous opportunity to partner with Envision Solar to expand the Solar Shaded Parking market in the UAE, Qatar and Spain. In the Middle East, the sun shines almost 365 days a year – we must take advantage of this opportunity to capture so much free energy and to also generate clean electricity that will help protect the environment. We selected Envision’s Solar Tree arrays because they are the best and will be most appealing to the market where we operate.”

FTA FY2012 Discretionary Grant Appropriations

Curious about which projects the Federal Transit Administration gave discretionary grant funding too? Well so was I. The US Department of Transportation just released a cool interactive map with info about the $787 million allocated by State of Good Repair, Bus Livability and Transit Asset Management Project grants to 255 projects across 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rio.

Here are the grant appropriations for transit systems of cities that I have lived in the US:

New York City - $34,468,000

The New York City Department of Transportation got $14,680,000 State of Good Repair grant to "rehabilitate 20 miles of existing bus lanes. Many of these lanes are in a state of poor repair, and NYCDOT has worked with the Pennsylvania State University to develop a more effective method of applying red lane markings that addresses past maintenance problems and greatly prolongs longevity." They also got a $3,400,000 Bus Livability grant to "implement a package of improvements along Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, making intermodal connection improvements such as better sidewalks, lighting, bus stop amenities, way finding, and subway station stairs."

The NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) got $24,000,000 State of Good Repair grant to "replace its obsolete bus radio system and construct a modernized bus command center. Bringing the bus radio system to a state of good repair is critical for day-to-day bus operations and will improve safety, service reliability and overall operating efficiency." They also got a $5,600,000 Transit Asset Management grant for the Integrated Whole Life Asset Management Planning System for the NYCT Bus Rolling Stock Revenue Fleet.

Los Angeles - $20,000,000

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) got $10,000,000 State of Good Repair grant to "replace buses in its fleet that have met or exceeded their useful life with Clean Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles." They also got a Bus Livability grant of $10,000,000 for the Metro Orange Line Bus Enhancement project that will provide a pedestrian connection improvements to the North Hollywood Red Line Station.

San Diego - $13,000,000

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit system (MTS) got $10,000,000 State of Good Repair grant to "expand and modernize its East County Bus Maintenance Facility in Cajon. The buildings at this location were originally constructed in 1959, are no longer compliant with city and state building codes, and are hindering MTS' ability to maintain it nealy 100% CNG vehicle fleet. These renovations will also incorporate the use of solar panels to reduce the carbon footprint and energy use of the facility." They also got a $3,000,000 Transit Asset Management grant that is aimed at helping agencies "develop and implement new or improved transit asset management systems and cost-effective ways to manage and maintain the condition of their systems."

Wisdom about Globalization from Stiglitz

"The problem...is that economic globalization has outpaced political globalization. Governments use to ensure that the capitalism was tempered and that development helped people across society. Now we are more interdependent and need collective action on a variety of things, yet we have yet to create the political structures that allow that to be done in a democratic way."

Joseph Stiglitz  

Globalization & Its Discontents, 2002

NYC Internet Speeds and Infrastructure Map - Inequity at Play?

While doing research about smartphones and urban access I came across this great map of Internet speeds and infrastructure in NYC.

From this map it seems as though low-income neighborhoods have slower internet speeds on the megabytes per second scale and that this is related to the amount of fiber optic in areas. A possible explanation is that there are not many commercial office uses in low-income neighborhoods. However, if you consider the Lower East Side (LES) that is not exactly bustling with commercial office spaces and yet there is an abundance of fiber optic infrastructure it is hard to wonder if this is not just another example of systematic inequities at play.

The ACEEE 2012 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard

The ACEEE created an interesting map that ranks countries on overall "energy efficiency" and across sectors.

However, in this map the energy efficiency innovating countries Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden or Spain are not necessarily ranked.